ESM track sweeps Cortland, hosts invitational

East Syracuse-Minoa’s girls track and field team picked up 27 points in its own invitational meet last Friday, abbreviated by that wet, windy weather, which canceled several field events and forced some teams to leave early.

Despite all the upheaval, the Spartans finished just one point behind Remsen and South Jefferson (28 points each) as Holland Patent won with 42 points.

The Spartans’ big moment came in the 4×800, where the team of Gabby Pallotta, Juliette Miller, Brittany Kubcka and Grace Maring finished in 11:00.3, beating runner-up South Lewis by 3.7 seconds.

Judi Neff gained eight points when she finished second (30.1 seconds) to Andrea Marfone (29.9) in the 200 sprint. Pallotta was fourth in the 3,000 (11:07.53) behind Pierce, with Miller fifth in the 800 and Kubecka fifth in the 1,500.

Two days earlier, the Spartans swept both sides of its OHSL Freedom division meet against Cortland, including a 100-41 victory on the boys side and a 97-44 conquest on the girls side.

Miller, Maring, Pallotta and Natalie Marra won the 4×800 relay in a time of 11 minutes, 25.1 seconds. On her own, Marra needed 5:28 to prevail at 1,500 meters as Miller took the 400-meter dash in 1:07.4.

Nina Zesky won a pair of field events, clearing 5 feet 2 inches in the high jump and going 15’4” in the long jump to edge Cortland’s Katie Dovi by two inches. Shantelle Clark had a first-placetriple jump of 27’8” as Hannah Terrezzano and Alexis Bennink both cleared 6’6” in the pole vault.

Elsewhere, Bridget Benz was first in the 100-meter hurdles in 19.6 seconds and added a victory in the 400 hurdles in 1:17.8, with Kubecka (12:54.2) taking the 3,000-meter run. Maria Miner edged Maring in the 800-meter run in 2:46.3 as Marra, Pallotta, Miller and Gabby Figueroa got first in the 4×400 in 4:39.7.

Jeff McDuffie led the ESM boys, clearing 5 feet 10 inches in the high jump and going 19’2 ½” in the long jump while running the 100-meter dash in 11.4 seconds for a third title.

Jeremy McGrath was first in the 110 high hurdles (18.2 seconds) and 400 hurdles (1:07.4), while Jesse Perrone followed up a 5:03 first-place mile by going 3,200 meters in 10:47.2 for another victory.

Joe Coogan joined in by running to first place in the 800-meter run in 2:09.9, also joining Perrone, Nick Schug and Jacob Barker as ESM won the 4×800 relay in 10:02.4. Angel Curbelo threw the shot put 36’5 ¼” for another title.